Humans
Transcript Tim and Moby are shown walking along a beach littered with trash. Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby. TIM: Look at all this trash, Moby. MOBY: Beep! Moby reaches down into the trash and pulls out a letter that Tim reads. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, people keep telling us to "save the planet". But what can I do to help the environment? From Bjorn. That is a great question. Three of the best ways I can think of are conserving, cleaning up, and chiming in! Conserving means using less of things like energy and manufactured goods. Cleaning up means cleaning up after yourself for sure, but also after others when you can. And chiming in—that means you should speak up about protecting the environment! MOBY: Beep? TIM: Well, for many thousands of years, humans have been using the earth's natural resources—things like the air we breathe and the water we drink. A globe is shown. One half of the globe shows the Eastern Hemisphere of Earth, and the other half shows the left half of a human figure. A circle that contains a human head breathing appears. A second circle containing a human head drinking appears. TIM: But we've only made a major impact on the environment over the last 200 years or so. For example, we began burning fossil fuels like coal and petroleum during the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. A coal plant is shown along with a piece of a coal and a glob of petroleum. TIM: Not only was this the beginning of pollution as we know it, it also marked the start of a huge population boom. Between 1800 and the present, the world population shot up from 1 billion to 6.6 billion! Two women are shown. One is wearing a Victorian-era dress, and the other is wearing modern clothing. A line graph that shows a dramatic increase appears over them. TIM: The more people there are on the planet, the more natural resources we use, the more chemicals we release, and the more waste we produce. An industrial drill, a car producing exhaust, and a landfill are shown. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Well, there are lots of reasons why this is bad for the planet—and us. For instance, whole forests have been cut down in order to produce wood for homes, furniture, and paper. A field full of tree stumps is shown. TIM: Destroying forests also destroys the homes of animals and other wildlife—which can cause organisms to go extinct. A squirrel holding a stick with a bag tied to the end of it is shown. TIM: And trees themselves are important to our health. Plants get rid of carbon dioxide and produce the oxygen we breathe, so we need to have them around! A leaf with an arrow pointing toward it and an arrow pointing away from it is shown. The arrow pointing toward it reads CO2. The arrow pointing away from it reads O2. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Yeah, lots of the stuff we buy every day messes up the planet, too. Take the plastic containers so many things come in. It takes a lot of oil to make just a little plastic. A cookie container, a water bottle, a grocery bag, and a milk carton are shown. TIM: Oil and other fossil fuels are nonrenewable sources of energy—there's only so much on the planet. Plus, when these fuels are burned, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane are produced. Cars are shown driving on a street and producing exhaust clouds. A coal plant can be seen in the background also producing large black plumes. TIM: These pollutants don't just damage our atmosphere—and our lungs—they also contribute to global warming. That's an unnatural increase in the world's temperature that scientists agree may soon have drastic effects on the planet. A heating globe is shown. MOBY: Beep! TIM: You got that right—humans make a lot of waste. In the United States alone, every person produces about 2 kilograms, or 4.5 pounds, of trash every day. A trash barrel is shown with a heaping pile of trash in it that grows larger. A truck is shown unloading large blocks of condensed trash. TIM: That's over 725 kilograms every year! Most of our trash ends up in landfills. Landfills usually do a good job of keeping pollutants from getting into the ground, but it can still happen. A landfill is shown, along with a pile of filled trash bags. TIM: Garbage can sit in a landfill for hundreds of years or more before it decomposes. And some of the things we throw out—like batteries, bleach, medicine, and other household items—can be really hazardous! Two batteries, a bottle of bleach, a medicine bottle, and bottle labeled "Bacteria" are shown. MOBY: Beep! TIM: Right, it does seem overwhelming sometimes. But every person can make a real difference—so let's go over those three C's again! First, try to conserve. Simple things like turning off lights you're not really using or turning your thermostat down just a few degrees in the winter can save energy and decrease fossil fuel use. A light bulb is shown being turned off, and a thermostat is shown changing from 72 degrees to 68 degrees. TIM: Another easy thing you can do is buy less stuff—especially things that come in unnecessary packaging! Next is cleaning up. It seems pretty simple, but just putting your waste in the right place can make all the difference. Three recycling bins are shown. The first is labeled with a picture of plastic, the second with a picture of a newspaper, and the third with a picture of bottle. TIM: Garbage not only looks bad; it can leak dangerous chemicals into the ground, which can eventually get into the water we drink! A landfill and several layers of soil are shown. The landfill is leaking chemicals into the ground. TIM: You can also try to find a volunteer group in your area that organizes trash cleanup days in parks or along highways. People are shown picking up trash in a park, and a highway is shown with only a few cars on it. TIM: Lastly, you can chime in! Tell your parents and friends how important saving the environment is to you. You can ask them to try to get their energy from companies that sell environmentally friendly fuels—things like wind power or biodiesel. Windmills in a field are shown, as well as a gas pump. TIM: You can also make your voice heard by writing to your local and national government representatives and telling them that you support environmentally friendly practices. A woman is shown typing at her computer. TIM: This is our planet, and we have to take care of it. I wonder how long it'll take us to go through the whole beach? Moby reaches down and pulls up a towel from the beach. He goes to put it in a trash bag. TIM: Hey! That's not garbage; that's my towel! Category:BrainPOP Transcripts